At the Book Launch

The Game's On Foot!

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock

Martin Freeman as John

in "Sherlock"

January 11, 2011 -- At Home with Malice Domestic

Malice Domestic is the local convention for mystery fans and authors, and this year's event is the 23rd gathering, from April 29 through May 1, at the Hotel Regency in Bethesda, Maryland. Registration is open until March 15 at their website, where you also will find a good look at what's in store. The toastmaster will be Donna Andrews (a local author many of you will have met at our meetings), and the guest of honor will be Carole Nelson Douglas (who has written an interesting series of novels featuring Irene Adler as the protagonist). There also will be at least one Sherlockian session, although details on programming have not been finalized. Some fortunate authors will win Agathas, which are voted on at the convention by those who have registered, and it is likely that there will be one or more Sherlockian titles worthy of consideration.

If you registered by the end of 2010 you are entitled to submit nominations, and you will soon receive a nomination form. Sherlockian books published last year include Laurie R. King's The God of the Hive (which qualifies for best novel), Graham Moore's The Sherlockian and Jon L. Lellenberg's Baker Street Irregular (both first novels), and of course you're welcome to nominate them.

Malice Domestic is a grand opportunity to meet authors you have read and enjoyed, and authors you haven't yet read but will enjoy (there will be opportunities to have your books signed or inscribed), and to find fellow enthusiasts of all sorts. The website has a frequently-updated list of registered authors (many if not most of whom will be on panels). I haven't been to all of the conventions, but I've never attended one that wasn't great fun.

Update February 23 -- Steven Doyle's Sherlock Holmes for Dummies has been nominated for an Agatha (best non-fiction). The Agathas are awarded by fans voting at the convention. Steve will be at Malice, happy to sign copies of his book.

December 5, 2010 -- Friends in High Places

It is not surprising, considering its location, that The Red Circle
of Washington has long been interested in the connections between
politicians and Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first
president known to have had such a connection was Herbert Hoover, who
invited William Gillette to the White House when Gillette was performing
his play Sherlock Holmes here. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were members of The Baker Street Irregulars. Dwight David Eisenhower cited The White Company
in one of his press conferences. And there are other such dignitaries,
both major and minor, in the White House, in Congress and on the Supreme
Court who will be discussed here in the future.

But for the
moment the focus is on the current president, and we are still searching
hopefully for a direct connection. Earlier this year the Associated
Press reported that Patti Blagojevich had been reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on
her cell phone during less-riveting stretches of her husband's
corruption trial; her husband is former Illinois governor Rod
Blagojevich, who was on trial for scheming to sell Barak Obama's former
Senate seat (and other offenses).

And now we're a bit closer:
the picture at the right shows Vice President Joe Biden with Graham
Moore, author of the new pastiche The Sherlockian, at a
reception this month at the Bidens' residence on Observatory
Circle. Moore's mother is Susan Sher, chief of staff for President
Obama's wife Michelle. You can read all about it in a story at the website FishbowlDC. Published this month, The Sherlockian centers
around two mysteries: one set in 1900, when Conan Doyle decides to do
his own detecting, and the other in 2010, when Harold White, newly made a
member of The Baker Street Irregulars, investigates the murder of a
Sherlockian who has announced that he has discovered Conan Doyle's
missing diary from the last three months of 1900. It's an interesting
story, with some nice surprises, and you can read more about the book
(and other things) at Graham Moore's website.

November 15, 2010 -- BBC's "Sherlock" a Hit; More Episodes to Follow

All three episodes of the BBC mini-series "Sherlock" have aired on Masterpiece Mystery on
PBS, and if you missed them you can wait for a repeat, or purchase the
DVD, which was released on Nov. 9. Actually, there are reasons to
acquire the DVD even if you've seen the shows: the DVD has audio
commentaries, a "making of" featurette, and the 60-minute pilot that was
so good that the BBC decided to commission the 90-minute series. The
pilot was re-done for the first of the broadcast episodes, and thus
never broadcast, and it's interesting and impressive to see how much
better the longer version is. The DVD also has closed captioning, which
will be helpful to those who have difficulty understanding British when
it's spoken quickly, and perhaps most important of all, the programs on
the DVD are complete (there were some minor edits to fit the Masterpiece Mystery time slot).

If you've not seen the shows, there will be no spoilers here, except a
warning that the basic premise of the series is that Holmes and Watson
are Holmes and Watson today, in 21st-century London. Those who believe
strongly that Holmes and Watson must exist only in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries will continue to enjoy the Granada series that
starred Jeremy Brett, David Burke, and Edward Hardwicke, and won't enjoy
the new series.

The new stars are Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who are
excellent actors and who benefit from fine supporting actors,
intelligent scripts, and intriguing and amusing allusions to the stories
written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There are frequent "aha!" moments
for those who know the original stories, and it will be interesting to
see how many viewers who don't know the original stories will wind up
reading them.

The series was quite successful in Britain, where more than 7 million
viewers watched the broadcasts, and the BBC has commissioned three more
programs for broadcast next autumn. Steve Moffat, who created the
series with Mark Gatiss, was interviewed on National Public Radio on
Oct. 15, and was asked for hints about the new shows; he replied, "The
critical words, I'd say, would be--Adler, Hound, Reichenbach."